Wednesday, February 3

If they're really "promising," they wouldn't do it

Someone explain to
me how, when a young, college-age student or the like, commits a horrible act,
they are referred to as, “promising” in the news coverage. Timely example: the
college kids at Virginia Tech who are accused of killing that 13-year-old girl,
are constantly called “promising, young Virginia Tech students.”

The way the media
talks about it, you would think that the killers here are some kind of victims
themselves, having had this crime thrust upon their once “promising” lives, and
that they had seemingly no choice in the matter. There was another murder, or
sexual assault case, or something years ago where the media also called the
perpetrators “promising.” I want to say they were football players? Like, the narrative
was that they were good football players, and the crime that they committed put
an end to their “promising” careers. And that they would have done great things
in this world, but for this one little hiccup of, I don’t know, killing or
raping someone. And how if this one thing had just not happened, the
possibilities for them would have been endless. … Sure, the possibilities of
how many other people they may have killed (or raped) had they not been caught
for this one crime would be endless.

I find it disheartening
that since the victims themselves don’t have a voice in these situations, no consideration
or feeling on how promising their lives could have been, is ever uttered. The
victim’s actual life was cut short, rather than the criminals’ careers, and no
one has the decency to call that life “promising”? No one can articulate what a
shame it is that the victim’s purpose or potential impact on the universe is
now a great unknown?

I find that if they
simply removed that one stupid word, “promising,” from the vocabulary when
discussing killers and rapists and other bad people, I would probably not have
an issue with a lot of the news coverage. But the addition of that one
descriptive word makes it sound so victim-blamey to me. Like, if that little
girl had just NOT DIED, these kids could go one with their wonderful, possibly
amazing, and certainly PROMISING lives.

My To-Be-Read Pile

"Grave Ransom," Kalayna Price

"The Map of Time," Felix J. Palma

Obsessed Much? Yes. TV shows I watch:

Archer,Drunk History, Elementary, Full Frontal with Samantha Bee, Game of Thrones, The Good Place, Gotham, iZombie, Last Week Tonight, Life in Pieces, Marvel's Agents of SHIELD, Modern Family, The Originals, Preacher, Talking Dead, The Walking Dead

Movies I've seen

The Accountant

Sing

Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them

Mr. Right

Passengers

Books I've Read

"The End of Oz," Danielle Paige

"Yellow Brick War," Danielle Paige

"Prince Lestat and the Realms of Atlantis," Anne Rice

"The Court of Mist and Fury," Sarah Maas

"The Angels' Share," J.R. Ward

Sydney G.

Cooper G.

Elliot G.

Random pet peeves

Head ribbons on babies

Mouth noises

Use of "@" outside of email addresses

Monkey movies

Shaped shrubbery

Dog owners that leave poo

Men who soapbox pro-life

Shingles

Crickets and ants

New York Yankees, Giants

Mosquito bites

"Fifty Shades of Grey"

Put on your quotation devices

"You can never have too many super-duper, super-swell friends."

"Well-behaved women rarely make history."

"As you wish."

"Bird by bird."

"I spin on an axis of my own neuroses."

"When in trouble, when in doubt, run in circles, scream and shout."

"Not the sort of information I retain."

"Keep a watchful eye for ravens."

" ... trying to smell the color 9."

Arbitrary goals and aspirations

Weigh what I've got listed on my driver's license.

Watch the "best" movies and read all the "best" books.

Gain the confidence to wear heels regularly and in everyday life.

Use the statement, made popular by most every movie villain, "You have no idea what I'm capable of."